Is Doing Business compatible with Doing good

Ah yes! The eternal question. We can put this question another way - Are business owners ethical? Are business owners moral?

Some people will argue that you can't do good business and still be good! According to them you will never make any money if you run your business morally. My argument is that if you don't run your business morally sooner or later you won't have a business because no one will want to work for you or do business with you.

My critics, I'm sure, will follow up with the statement, "by that time I would have already made all the money I want to make, so who cares".

Very true - so how do you guide young and upcoming businessmen who are in competition with very powerful immoral incumbents.

Take for example, we know of the companies that only get involved in helping develop entrepreneurs so that they can buy them out in a few years; or what about the companies that go directly to your supplier and negotiate a deal "behind your back" and then one morning you realize you are no longer the distributor of said product!

This is just one of the challenges that many face in a country where morals and ethics do NOT play a part in the business world.

But let's extend this thought to how these unethical companies treat their employees. As I said earlier, if one day people decided that they've had enough of being treated like a slave and leave, where would our lovely companies be? But we already know that not everyone will leave; we already know that even though everyone gets upset and complains about the way they are treated by their employers, the conditions of their workplace, the below worth salary when compared with the amount of work that is required of them; we know that at the end of the day a job is a job is a job.

Without that "horrible" job you probably will not survive.

So the power remains with companies to actually step up and be better people, be better employers. I say that the responsibility lies with the employers to ensure that they don't get so greedy that they forget the people who work for them. I have seen how greed has turned otherwise good, honest and dare I say Christian employers to literally act like the Devil Incarnate when it comes to business.

It is a sad reality that we live in when the "leaders" of organizations perpetuate such conditions in our society.

Where are you mom? Where are you dad?

We've all heard the saying, "the path to hell is paved with good intentions"

Do we really know what that means and better yet, do we care? When you ask someone today what is the most important thing in your life you will often hear things like; my family, my wife, my children.

For those very "noble" people who say that their family or some part thereof I applaud you and slap you across the face at the same time. Most of you who consider your family as the most important spend the least amount of time with them because you have a "demanding" job, or a "demanding" hobby. You have very REAL intentions of placing your family first but your priorities are so skewed that you can not even see that your family has become the least important thing in your life.

Now I know the counter argument already - 'Well I have to work really hard to "support" my family.'

Great! work very hard is what I will tell you, but NEVER sacrifice what is important for what is not. If your family is really important to you then you will demonstrate this with real acts of love. I'm sure you've heard the saying "actions speak louder than words".

You may not appreciate or understand now, but 3 hours of overtime could never make us for your daughter's first ballet recital that you missed because you were trying to make that extra money to buy the ballet shoes that she needs. You will not believe it now, but your daughter will love you as a father more if she has wear older shoes just so that she can see you in the crowd when she comes on the stage.

Yes we make a lot of sacrifices in our lives but sometimes we often to choose to make the "wrong" sacrifices, if there is such a thing.

Now I started off by saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I'm sure we can all see how this applies to the person who makes a million promises in his life to do good, to be a better person, but never does any of it. We will call that person a hypocrite and rightly so he is.

Have you ever thought that you do the same thing when you choose work over your family; when you choose the football game over family dinner; when you choose a night out with the boys over a night out with your wife; when you choose to sleep in late while your children go to Church by themselves?

Your position in life - mother, father, wife or husband - came with certain "expectations" and promises that you made by just accepting to be a husband or wife, mother or father.

To put anything except God above being a husband/wife, mother or father is to be just as much a hypocrite as someone who promises with the best of intentions but does nothing.

Yes the phrase is a strong one, but it is only stated to help us all really examine our hypocritical behavior and to fix them for the better.

Change is Good

There is a small twin island state that has the opportunity to change on May 24th 2010, but will it? My opinion is this, there will be no change, because people generally speaking do not like change. My opinion is those who want change will eventually change, by changing their location, their residential status etc, so that things change for them personally.

We all know my thoughts on this twin island state - it's a wonderful place to visit but a HORRIBLE place to live.

When you create a state of comfort for individuals they are rarely willing to give up that comfort. Change requires the need for discomfort, change causes stress (good stress), change brings about advancement, but change also carries with it significant risk.

Trinidad and Tobago is generally a country of low risk takers. Security is the name of the game and whoever provides the illusion of that security will be the ones in power.

We also know that it is human nature once you are in power people rarely want to give up that power. Power is generally taken away from people. Authority is gained. The reason most Trinidadians do not respect our Police force is because they have "power" but no "authority". The reason people fear Patrick Manning is because he has "power" but no "authority".

And the reason PNM will go back into power is because people generally do not like anything that makes them uncomfortable. They do not like change, they are afraid and they do not know what it means to take risk.

For those of you who want change I suggest you in your own small way be the change you want to see and maybe one day the other idiots will catch on. In the meantime immigration to Canada, the UK and Australia have become much easier. I know that those of you who want change all have at least two degrees from institutions outside of the Caribbean so you automatically have some points in the page.

Check out the embassies and see if you can't make the change for yourself.

The power of the Vote

I am usually not a political person, but I think that this year may change all of that. Our "wonderful" Prime Minister, in an effort to avoid the scandal of a debate "Vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister," has opted to take the nation of Trinidad and Tobago to elections!

For all of you people who are not nationals - our last General Elections was a mere two years ago, and yes you are suppose to have elections every five years, and yes in our country the Prime Minister can do whatever he pleases. Well at least this one.

So now that I have informed the non-nationals of our soon to be plight for Refugee status - as our nation is fast becoming one of those "democratic" nations that says it's a democratic society so that the USA doesn't put them in their bad books (like the increasing number of Trinidad deportees isn't enough), I will continue with this discussion.

Being a person who believes in democracy I always give my readers the option to comment and speak up - I don't think that many of our nationals can say the same for the Prime Minister who has opted to "run" to the poles.

So why a general elections - well we [Trinidadians] know why.

I read recently in a religious book that the "job" of a politician is to serve the people. At first I had to check the publishing date of the book to make sure that it was published in this century!!!

However, I was reminded that governments are in fact there to represent the voice of the people. But I think we have to make the distinction between a government and a politician. I have always said and will continue to say that politicians are concerned about themselves. They generally lie more than lawyers and they are more selfish than stock brokers. My experience has always taught me that politicians are a breed of people who generally care a WHOLE lot about themselves and very little about anyone else.

Now I do not want to generalize, but the only time people see their representatives is when it is time to vote them BACK into power, at which time most developed nations will vote them out and try the next guy. Well fortunately or unfortunately for us in the developing (third world) nations, when we're upset with someone for hurting us, or kicking us around on the ground, we invite them to stay longer and continue to kick us around.

A friend told me the reason we keep voting the same idiots into power is because it's too HOT down here in Trinidad - all the people are so delirious with the heat they cannot think straight and they get confused when they go to the polling stations. Now, one would argue that if there are no good politicians it is better to "choose the devil you know versus the devil you don't know".

However I think we are at the stage where we know all the "devils" and as such we should do like the developed nations do - toss one out and try the next for five years, and if that one doesn't straighten up his act toss him and put the next one back in.

The big difference there however - the agendas of politicians of developed nations "most of the time" seem to fall in line with "serving" the people or at least a large percentage of the people.

Here in Trinidad there are people who are being served by our government and politicians but the ratio pales in comparison to those not being served.

I know I will hear something from the ruling party’s supporters about - "well what about the GATE program, and all the free education.... and the increased pensions.... and the training jobs, OJT etc."

My response to that would be, "If you didn't pay and work hard for your degree well then I guess $3000 a month is an "ok" salary for someone with a Bachelor's degree" (for you American's out there that's $476.19 US a month, for someone who has A DEGREE!!!!!!!!).

Then there are those of us who have worked hard and paid through our noses to become educated, but in Trinidad you are only worthy of a “real salary” if you know someone in a high position, involved in corruption, involved in drugs or willing to become someone’s “yes man.” Hmmm, sounds like the job description of a politician. Other than that, no matter how many degrees you have you will always be exploited.

But the supporters will say something is better than nothing! Right! We're not in the year 1913 when $400 US a month is worth something - particularly with such a high inflation rate. Such a salary is an INSULT to anyone's intelligence.

And for all the "NON VOTERS" out there who wish to abstain from your right to vote - I will say this to you, when you abstain from voting; you abstain from objecting to what affects you, your loved ones and your country. To vote is your duty and your right.

I used to be one who didn't think voting was necessary because the government needs your taxes to complete their programs and they get ALL their taxes. So by that logic I thought I had every right to object to anything they were doing because it was our tax dollars being spent. However if you had a say in WHO you want to use your tax dollars then your argument becomes a little stronger.

So you have just a few days remaining to register if you haven't registered and we are looking forward to that day when we stain our fingers red.

Searching for a focused Catholic Young Lady

When we decide to settle down and find that special someone we often look for the ideals.
The title of this piece is the answer to a question I posed to a friend of mine,
"Searching for a focused Catholic Young Lady." In today's world when you hear something like that you smile - because it is so rear to hear men saying such things. A man cannot be searching for a focused Catholic lady if he himself isn't a focused Catholic man.

Our societies around the world have become afraid of goodness. We are afraid of being politically incorrect and therefore we stand up for nothing. We tolerate everything and in so doing we dismiss all our morals, values and ethics.
The example here was of a guy searching for his Catholic counterpart. The situation could easily have been a Jew searching for his counterpart, a Methodist, or a Pentecostal. It really doesn’t matter the religion at this point, what matters is that these people who have strong beliefs as different and controversial as they may be are searching for someone who HAS beliefs as well.
The essence is very simple - here we have something that is no longer a normal occurrence in our societies anymore - a person seeking the values that he has for himself in another human being.

What is very sad is that he has to search - because there are too many who have lost touch with their faith and choose to compromise their faith to be included in the general populous of those who would rather NOT believe in anything. It is too difficult to go to Mass every Sunday, or it is too difficult to fast during the month of Ramadan, or Lent; it is much easier to say "Happy Xmas" rather than "Merry CHRISTmas"

We cast aside the foundations of our value systems in our society and then wonder why there is so much crime and violence in the world. America wants to take God out of every school (Maybe they have already). When they decide to take God out of everything in their society can you imagine how much money will need to be re-printed?!?!??! (I wonder who will get that contract.)

No person who holds their belief nearest and dearest to their hearts should have to SEARCH that hard for the person who will support them in their future life. It is easier on many levels when you share the same principals, values and beliefs. And it ensures that you and your spouse will always have a united front in the areas that matter most.

For those men out there who live their life by their faith and are searching for their counterpart I applaud you, for you represent a dying breed that I hope will not become extinct.

Brain drain - Part 1

This topic has been at the fore front of minds in several of the developing nation regions around the world. I can only share the experiences of my own country - Trinidad and Tobago - when it comes to the topic of the "Brain Drain". It is a real and sad reality of everyday living in Trinidad; not that crime isn't any worse but that we will leave entirely for another blog.

What is the "Brain Drain" - well I define it simply as "the mass migration of an educated and skilled population."

Simply put - young people leaving the shores of Trinidad and Tobago getting first class education outside of the country and never returning home.

I am one of those who will admit to never wanting to return to Trinidad. As I termed it - "there was nothing here for me". So I contributed to the problem for 4 years (if you don't count my first degree). However it is a well known fact that if I were given the opportunity to stay abroad I would. Like most of my colleagues who reside in some other part of the world that they will never call "home". They chose to stay there rather return to Trinidad.

There are few people I know who actually want to return to their homeland. Those that do want to return either miss the food, their family, and most of all Carnival. They never return because there is great opportunity here, or because they can make loads of money. They return for what the country has to offer other than a professional future.

What causes the brain drain? It is a cycle - just like poverty. The discussion always start - young people need to return to their countries to help the country develop. The counter argument is - what will I be doing? Meaning what will I am doing as a professional?

Most people who are born in a third world and/or developing nations but are educated and live in the first world/developed nations rarely see the "benefit" of returning home. To be perfectly honest there is no material benefit - the raw facts are they will NEVER earn the same income that can be earned positioned in comparative jobs in your homeland versus that of the first world. We see Europe and America competing for labor based on salaries - even though they are miles away - but because of their status in the world they can offer similar salaries, similar benefits that will attract young professionals into their workforce. That will never be the case for say America vs. Trinidad.

So as a young person having graduated from some school in the USA or Europe, having been exposed to the culture, the standard of living, the cost of living and compared that with a reasonable salary, it should be no wonder why so many young adults choose to stay there rather than return to their homes.

As young adults we are thinking about a future - our future - and we know from our limited experience that no longer are we tied to one nation. The world is literally at our finger tips. There are so many places that people all over the world can migrate to, work, have a better life for themselves and their families. Why would any of them choose to return to a mundane existence, a dead-end job that has a grand title but nothing monetary to back it, a job that has no return and adds no real value. Why would a young person looking start their professional life choose to shoot themselves in the foot and start at the bottom of the rung when the choice is there to start higher up. Why would a young professional after having gained all the skills necessary to perform in a first world country leave that country?

Why? Why would they not return home? Why would they stay in the US, Canada or England? Because they have a choice. Usually a choice means that there are two things in front of these young people - one is better than the next, one is more appealing than the next, one provides more than the next.

Choice is exactly why they stay and that's why our country's suffer from "The Brain Drain"